Means for cementing oil, gas, and water wells



Nov. 5, 1929, H. M. GREENE MEANS FOR CEMENTING OIL, GAS, AND WATER WELLSFiled Sept. 5, 1925 .t .s 1 rr A.. Y A l Patented N ov., 5, @929 HASKELLM., GREENE, F TAFT, CALIFORNIA Application led September 5, 1923. SerialNo. 661,019.

In the operation of drilling wells, it frequently becomes necessary tocement the walls of the hole for the purpose of shutting 0E water strataor other openings in the formation, and also for thev purpose of holdingin place at theside of the hole obstructions such as drill bits or othertools, or portions of casing which have been lost in the well and notrecovered, but which have been lo crowded aside, and are likely to 'fallback from the walls into which they have been crowded.

y'Io acc-om lish the purposes of this invention by met ods and meansheretofore used,

has been a tedious and more or less ineffective and unsatisfactoryoperation and has involved much delay and expense, and failures toaccomplish the purposes `have been likely to result, and often hasresulted in the loss of the hole.

An object of this discovery and invention is to avoid such vdifficultiesand failures and to minimize the expense of cementing wells.

In carrying out this invention I'lower into the well an appropriateclosed sheet metal case containing a central cartridge of explosivehaving near its lower end a detonator and surrounded by an appropriatecharge of cementitious material extending a considerable distance abovethe level of the detonator, and placingsuch cartridge in the well withthedetonator approximately at the level where the `wall of the well isto be plastered and then igniting the detonator and thereby explodingthe cartridge, so that the cementitious material directly around thedetonator will be driven out with great force to disrupt the sheet metalcase and pllaster the wall immediately surrounding t e cartridge at thatlevel, with the cementitious material and the disrupted portions of thecontainer, while the force of the explosion in the upper part of thecase will not compact the cementitious material at the upper end of thecase, but will rupture the case so that the cementitious material willdescend by gravity to plug the hole and supportthe plaster on the wallwith a filling that may be conveniently drilled out;

and to allow this to be effective, I close the -the detonator.

top of the sheet metal case with a downwardly reduced plug, held inplace by gravity so that the force of the explosion at the upper part ofthe case will be less effective to compact the cement than at th/e locusof An object of this invention isc/to accomplish the purposes' easily,Vquickly and certainly and to insure the" pro-per closing of lateralopenings in the wall, and the perfeet retention in the wall of theobstruction which it was necessary to get 'rid of.

An ,object is to enablethe operator to cement in place any obstructionthat has been crowded into the side of the wall; and to pement the wallwith great ease and expediion.

rllhe torpedo is preferably of a greatly elongated form, say forinstance about thirty feet, more or less, long for a six or eightinchho-le and/ when the explosion has occurred, the perimeter of theapplied cement will be compacted intothe wall together with portions ofthe4 disrupted sheet'metal case and the core of the cement body will belformed of cement that has settled into place by the force lof gravityvand by return of the liquid forced up by the explosion; and such core iscomparatively soft and easily bored through while the compacted shell isfirmer and is held in place by the core that has settled into place. Ithus avoid much of the labor and time of boring through the cementincontinuingthe operation of drill,- in the well after the cementing hasbeen e ected.

An advantage is that by the employment of my new method, th'e cementshell is compacted more closely than has heretofore been possible, andit is practicable to bore through the core sooner after the cement hasset than is racticable by the former methods.

ther objects,advantages and features of invention may appear from theaccompanying drawing, the subjoined detail description and the appendedclaims.

I will now describe my newlydiscovered and invented method of and meansfor cementing `wells as illustrated b panying drawing, in which y theaccoln- Figure 1 is a sectional view of a. well with a torpedo in placeready 'for exploding.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged axial section of the torpedo shown in Fig. 1.

Figf?)v is an illustrative view of the cemented \well after the cementhas set and before 1t has been bored.

\The torpedo comprises a charge 1 of explolsive in yan elongatedcontainer 2, embedded in a charge 3 of cementitious substance completelysurrounding the explosive container 2 and contained in a sheet metallcase 4 provided with a bail 5 to which a line 6 is attached for llowering the torpedo 1, 2, 3, l into the hole 7.

8 indicates the electrical conductors for exploding therexplosivecharge. rlhe exploding medium being preferably a detonator 8. The lowerend of the case 4 is'preferably pointed as at a to facilitate loweringthe torpedo into the well. 9 is a'at top downwardly conical stopper forgravitationallyclosing the open top of the case 4, to protect `thecontents of the case as it is lowered, and adapted to be displacedupwardly by a comparatively modcrate force from below. rlhe vdetonator8' is located at the lower end of the charges 1 and 3 so that theimmediately initial force of the explosion will be directly appliedoutwardly at the lower end of the cement charge to compact it and driveVit with fragments of the case to the wall of the hole near th bottomof' the case, while the force of th explosion -above the detonator isallowed to disrupt the container and to measurably dissipate upwardly sothat the cementitious material -above the level of the detonator isallowed to vdescend by gravity and to lodge within the compacted zone ofcement and casing fragments and to form a plug of comparatively softcementitious material that can be easilyI drilled. v

ln practical operation, if there is an obstruction as a sh-tail bit 10in the well, the workmen will crowd the same to one side in the usualway, with tools lowered/into the wellV for that purpose, and the tools,not shown, being-then removed from the hole, the' torpedo will belowered into the hole to the level of the place at which the cement isto be applied.

Y The length of the cartridge will be determinedby the length of theplace in the `walls of the hole at which the cement is to be applied.The` hole may be lled to a greater or less extent with water or otherliquid at the time the torpedo is lowered and when theAtorpedo has beenbrought to the appropriate v place, rit may be submerged in such hquid;and

the explosion is effected by current turned o n through the electriccircuit in the usual way to explode the detonator, the explosion takeslace and the cementitious substance isrdriven y the force of saidexplosion into the ad- -jacent walls and will be in the form of acompacted shell 11 against the walls of the. cavity 12, which will. beof greater or less diameter according to the `conditions of the work.The core 13 will be formed by the subsidence of the less compactedmaterial and will be easy to bore through.

The cementitious substance may be of any practical character and I havesuccessfully used a portion of cement suiiciently Huid to pack tightlyby gravity in the case 4 and of such consistency and character that whenthe explosion occurs the adjacent walls of the hole will be forciblyplastered with the cement, thus providing at the place to be cemented ashell in a cavity of greater or less diameter depending upon the amountof the explosive charge and the density and irregularity of the walls ofthe hole.

eov

rllhe container 2 and case 4 are 4preferably.

made of sheet metal such as light galvanized sheet iron, the purposesbeing toy make the container-.and case suciently strong to hold theexplosive and cement charges in place until the explosion occurs andthen to be readily ruptured at the levelof the detonator and driven intothe walls of thehole together with the cementitious substance.

By' surrounding the cementitious material with an impermeable sheetmetal casing, the material is confined suicientlyso that the explosionrequired to disrupt the case will cause the material to be driven 1n acompacted mass within the ruptured portion of the case and the case isspread apart by the force of the explosion to assist in forming asupport resti ing on the walls of the hole to prevent loss ofcementitious material; and the pointed lower end of the sheet metal casenot only serves to center the case iny its descent, but also to assistin closing the hole against the descent of cementitious material sothat/such material will make the comparatively soft core.

The cement may be ordinarily hydraulic cement, with or without chemicaladditions dto cause it to set quickly. I have usedin `combination withthe cement, a composition purchased in the open market, the object beingto cause the cement to quickly harden, i

and in practical use with such material, I

have been able to cement a hole and have itready for further operationswithin two hours after the explosion.

I claim. 1. The well cementingcartridge set forth, comprising a sheetmetal casing, an explosive charge in said casing; a detonator lotcatedat a lower portion of said explosive charge, and

a charge of cementitious material .surround- L ing the explosive' chargeat the level of the detonator and extending a considerable distanceabove the detonator so that when the detonato'r charge is ignited theforce of the explosion at thev lower end of the cementitious charge willoperate to compact a lower portion of the cementitious material againstthe walll while I the cementltious material above the detonator will befreed to descend by gravity to close the hole with an easily drillablecore inside the cementitious material compacted by the force of theexplosion.

2. A cartridge V :torcementing the walls of a well, which cartridgecomprises a sheet metal -case having a conical bottom; an explosivecharge central to the case; a detonator at the lower portion of theexplosive charge; means to explode the detonator; a cernentitious chargearound the explosive and filling the case a considerable distancethereabove; a downwardly conical stopper seated in the top of the case;a bail secured to the case and a line attached thereto to lower the caseinto the well and means to ignite the detonatorvat the lower part of theexplosive charge.

In witness whereof, I h 'ave hereunto set my hand at Whittier,California, this 28th day of August, 1923.

HASKELL M. GREENE.

